An indirect question has two parts. These are often two questions that make one question:
Could you tell me? / What is the time, please?
Could you tell me what the time is, please? (indirect question)
Do you know? / When does the train arrive?
Do you know when the train arrives? (indirect question)
Notice that the indirect question only has ONE inversion in the first part:
Could you tell me what the time is, please?
Do you know when the train arrives?
It is important to know that the second part of an indirect question does not have inversion. Common mistakes are:
Do you know what is the time, please?
Could you tell me when does the train arrive?
We use indirect questions to be more polite. Using Could you...? Would you...? Can you...? is considered more polite than asking a direct question:
Where's the train station? (direct question)
Would you mind telling me where the train station is, please? (indirect question)
We also call indirect questions those direct questions preceded by another phrase even when they are not real questions ie. there is no inversion and therefore there is no "?":
I wonder if you could help me with my English homework.
We were thinking whether you would like to join us for dinner tonight.
I'd be grateful if you could let me know when the report will be ready.
We see that in these examples of indirect "questions" there is no inversion at all.
There are some direct questions in English that do not take inversion. This can happen with questions with words like who, which and what:
Who told you that?
Which vase broke?
What could have happened?
In these examples, who, which and what are the subjects of the question. Therefore, there is no change in the structure of the indirect question:
Can you tell me who told you that?
Do you know which vase broke?
Could you explain what could have happened?
- Exercises on indirect questions...
Listening podcast on indirect questions...
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